1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image data control device, an image data control program, a computer readable recording medium on which the program is stored, an image forming device, and an image reading device. In particular, the invention relates to an image data control device having a storage device for accumulating jobs containing image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming device such as a digital copying machine incorporates, in addition to a memory for storing image data by page during printing, a high capacity hard disk capable of storing jobs containing image data.
In this kind of image forming device, since it is possible to accumulate jobs already processed, for example, with printing, in a storage device such as a hard disk, it is also possible to reuse the accumulated processed jobs, for example, by reprinting them.
However, when the hard disk capacity is reached, it is sometimes necessary for a user to remove some of the accumulated jobs manually in order to execute a new job. In order to solve this problem, equipment has been known, for example, a device disclosed by Unexamined Publication No. JP-A-2000-138808 wherein a job is automatically deleted when a certain period of time has passed since the job is stored in the hard disk.
However, in case of the device disclosed by the publication, particularly even in a case when a reproduced or combined job (referencing job), which contains image data obtained by referencing another job (referenced job), is stored in the hard disk, there is a risk of deleting unilaterally the referenced job after a certain period of time. There is a problem, in this case, that the reason for existence of the reproduced or combined job, which reference the referenced job, will be lost if the referenced job is deleted, thus creating a problem of being unable to achieve an efficient and appropriate use of the hard disk.